We had the privilege of speaking with Liberty Athletic Director Ian McCaw at length about the state of the Liberty Athletic program. We delved into a vast array of topics, focusing on the athletic program’s first year in Conference USA and the numerous changes within the college athletic landscape. We also touched on several topics surrounding Liberty football, men’s basketball, baseball and other programs on the Mountain.
This will be a multi-part series we release this week. Today’s feature looks at McCaw’s goals for the program this coming year amid the vast changes currently ongoing throughout the college athletic landscape.
Previous:
Part 1: 2023-24 year in review; CUSA
ASOR: What are your top goals you are hoping the athletic department achieves this coming academic year?
Ian McCaw: “Our vision is always the same, it’s to train champions for Christ by creating experiences for our student-athletes and achieving it with integrity. That is our constant. I believe this year we have the potential to be very successful again athletically, academically, spiritually, social.”
“It’s going to be a unique year in college athletics. We are going to hear a lot about the House Settlement, all the changes that are taking place. We are going to have to navigate that. Some use the analogy, it’s like as you are flying an airplane you need to build the airplane while you are flying it. So, that’s going to be something we are going to need to contend with this year, but, again, I think Flames’ fans are going to be excited. It’s going to be a special year for us again.”
ASOR: There is constant talk nationally about the changing landscape of college athletics. With NIL and the transfer portal, how has each of the programs adapted to these changes?
Ian McCaw: “I think we have been proactive in both areas in terms of both NIL and the transfer portal. We’ve thrived here in the first few years in this environment. Liberty has a lot to offer student-athletes. They have a great experience here. Some of our programs have adapted maybe better than others. Overall, it has been a net positive in terms of how our programs have performed during these last couple of years.”
ASOR: How does the new NIL legislation affect Liberty with Virginia universities being able to pay players directly? Are there any advantages to this, do you see this becoming a theme across other states?
Ian McCaw: “We are in a unique space in that the Virginia NIL legislation and laws in some other states are more permissive than NCAA rules at this point. That’s a problem that needs to be resolved. We really need to have a national set of limits so that everybody is playing by the same rules. Unfortunately that is not the case at this point in time. Hopefully we get to that point sooner rather than later and the House Settlement will impact that as well.”
ASOR: There is a report out from Yahoo Sports where the NCAA is set to establish roster limits for several sports, increasing scholarship limits for most. How will this affect Liberty, and will the Flames be able to offer the maximum allowed number of scholarships by the NCAA for each sport it offers?
Ian McCaw: “This is an evolving subject right now, part of a proposed House Settlement. The NCAA is setting new roster limits for every sport. I think we know six at this point – football, 105; baseball, 34; men’s and women’s basketball, 15 each; softball, 25; volleyball, 18. We are waiting to hear on the others.”
“Once we learn that, obviously, we will need to figure out how that impacts Title IX and also what the financial implications are of that. This will be something we will be studying here in the coming months and evaluating how we can put our programs in the best position to be successful moving forward, but it will be drastic change in college athletics. There is no question it will be a very different model in place in 2025-26 that will include the opportunity for revenue sharing as well for the first time for student-athletes.”
